


december 12th: my baby's baby

by watergator



Series: december fic advent 2019 [12]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2009 Era (Phandom), Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:53:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21772510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: prompt: eavesdroppingkaren overhears a skype call
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: december fic advent 2019 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559341
Comments: 12
Kudos: 165





	december 12th: my baby's baby

She’s hauling the laundry basket under her arm when she hears a small giggle come from the other side of her eldest sons door. It makes her pause, unsure of what she thinks she heard is true.

She’s about to keep walking, over to Adrian's room and give out to him for not picking up his football kit from off his floor, when he starts laughing again. She listens hard, straining her ear even though she knows it’s wrong.

She hears his hushed voice, unable to make out the words but she hears him, talking in a low tone, then silence before he laughs again, a little louder this time.

She smiles. It’s such a beautiful laugh, something giggly and airy and it reminds her of him as a child, the kind of laugh that he’d let out when she’d get on the carpet and play with him, back when he was smaller and he could fit in her arms.

She’s leaning a little closer to the door when she hears a shuffle, a squeak on the bed that has her leaping away from her spot, almost like she was going to be caught out eavesdropping on her sons conversation.

She bites her lip as she finds herself shuffling back again and trying to have a listen again, but she shakes her head and carries on, moving to Adrians room where his football kit is in fact on the floor.

*

It happens again the following night. The house is quiet, Bangy is strewn across her legs, Adrian is sag snuggled up beside her whilst a crappy TV movie plays, merely background noise as her thoughts roam around in her head.

Dan is upstairs again, locked up in his room. He’d practically ran up there as soon as the last bite of his dinner had hit his stomach, jumping up out of his seat with a grin on his face.

Karen knows he’s up there talking to someone; on the phone or on one of those online messaging websites she doesn’t understand - it’s all too technical for her to get her head around.

Curiosity bags at her. She wishes she could be a fly on the wall of his room at times like these. She wonders what the person he’s talking to is like. Wonders what it is that makes him laugh the way he does, that make him desperate to stumble back up to his bedroom when it’s only been an hour the last time he’d been up there being secretive.

She looks at her youngest son, curled up against the dog.

She tells him she’ll be back in a minute and shifts the dog off of her, letting him happily flop back onto the sofa without a care.

She feels bad as she creeps up the stairs but motherly intuition is telling her there’s no harm in just… standing outside her sons bedroom. The landing is a free space to stand. It’s fine.

She misses the steps that creak and tiptoes beside his closed door. Light pokes from underneath it and she takes a breath as she stands and waits.

There’s nothing to be heard at first, and the more she stands there the more she feels like a lemon. She’s about to leave and retreat back downstairs when she hears a sniffle.

She freezes. She listens again and she hears the soft sound of crying.

Her heart leaps into her throat. The sound of her children crying pains her, right to the core. It’s a distressing sound, especially knowing it comes from inside a locked room. She chews on her lip, and raises her fist, ready to knock on the door and confront her seemingly sad son. She’s not so great and comforting Dan, especially now that he's older, but as her mother it’s her job to try her best.

But before she can knock on the door she hears a wet laugh, and then a sniff, and another laugh.

She swallows thickly. 

She can hear the sound of talking, another voice that sounds muffled and deep and low, almost crackly. She breathes as she listens to the quiet conversation being held behind the door.

Dan’s laughing now. She can imagine his face; eyes a little watery and cheeks a rosy pink colour. She remembers that face. That face he’d made when something had cheered him up when he’d been sad, how she used to push his curls out of his face and kiss him on the forehead and promise to love him forever.

She’s held on to that promise and she will always hold on to it. 

But for the first time in a long time she hadn’t been the one to take away that pain. Some stranger on the internet had been.

She feels a rush of anger. Something twisted and ugly like envy and it only takes a second to make that go away.

Her son is growing up, both of her boys are outgrowing her, and as much as she wants to hold on and prove she can do a good job, it’s just not the same anymore.

It’s not as easy as kissing at scraped knees and rubbing and bumped heads. The pain now is something different and bigger and a little deeper; something a mother can’t always reach in and fix.

Sometimes it takes someone else from the outside to fix that. Sometimes it takes the person to fix it themselves, and maybe Dan doesn’t need his mum anymore to help him with that. Maybe he’s learning to do it himself.

She smiles. She can hear him chatting away again, happy and giggly, with a quiet and hushed voice that seems excitable. It makes her heart leap. He’s happy and he’s okay.

She’s about to move, walk back downstairs and pretend she hasn’t been listening in on her son when all of a sudden the door flies open and she’s stood face to face with her very confused looking son.

He frowns at her. “Uh. What are you doing standing here?” He asks with a half laugh. She doesn’t miss the way his cheeks are a little blotchy and his eyes a tad puffy.

She doesn’t mention it like she might have done before. She smiles at him.

“We’re having ice cream,” she tells him, thinking fast on her feet. “Want some?”

Dan looks at her before he quickly glances to his room again. Karen sneaks a glance and see the open laptop on his bed.

“Uh… is it alright if I have some in my room?”

Karen is ready to say no. Ready to tell him that if he wants to eat he’ll have to eat with everyone downstairs but she takes a breath and smiles at him again.

“Sure,” she tells him. “As long as you don’t make a mess, alright?”

He grins, his posture relaxes and he lets out a breathy laugh. “Cool. Thanks mum.”

He bounds down the stairs ahead of her and makes his way to the kitchen. Bangy is already at his feet and Dan make sure to crouch down and make a fuss of him whilst Karen grabs the bowls and scoops in the ice cream for the three of them.

Adrian eats on the couch, and Dan gives her a quick thanks and rushes back up to his room, shutting his door where Karen can’t hear him.

She sits back down on the sofa next to her son and the dog, who’s sniffing around for ice cream.

She rubs at his ears and cuddles up to him.

She doesn’t mind. As long as everyone is happy, she doesn’t mind at all. 

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr !! @watergator


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